The BBC announced some details about the coming Doctor Who Series 9 premiere: Michelle Gomez will be returning as Missy, the latest incarnation of the Doctor’s long-standing nemesis the Master.

The news popped up on a variety of online BBC outlets, primarily through exclusive video showing Michelle Gomez in costume (see below.)

Saint Nick Frost is gearing up for his appearance in Last Christmas, the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas Special, while Peter Capaldi is ready for not just Series 9, but Series 10 and beyond as well.

During TARDISblend 84, we preview the upcoming Christmas Special, and also discuss the latest news and rumors surrounding the next season, Series 9, including a list of some well-loved characters rumored to return. We also ponder Jenna Coleman‘s next steps as Clara in the series.

All this and more on the latest TARDISblend!

The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) has been separated from Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), and he must team up with UNIT and some old friends to face off against his old enemy now known as Missy (Michelle Gomez) and her army of Cybermen. Meanwhile, Clara finds herself in a cemetery, and must resolve the mystery of Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson)

Andrew Sorcini guests on TARDISblend 83, where we discuss the invasion of the “Cyberzombies” in the season finale of Series 8, but also preview the reveals and previews of this year’s upcoming Doctor Who starring “Saint” Nick Frost.

All this and more on the latest TARDISblend!

Doctor Who
Season 8, Episode 12 “Death In Heaven”
Directed by Rachel Talalay
Written by Steven Moffat
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Michelle Gomez
BBC America
Air Date: Saturday, November 8, 2014

The end has finally come and with it, reckoning. A number of threads were left hanging after “Dark Water” last week. What is Missy/The Master planning? Is Danny really dead? What will happen to Clara? How do the Cybermen fit in? It was all a bit of a mish-mash. It was difficult to see where the dramatic payoff would come from, and how it would finally let viewers look back at this season’s story arc.

While I believe this final episode, “Death In Heaven,” competently checked off all the boxes and answered everything, excellence came only in flashes. Michelle Gomez is responsible for much of it. The scene in which Missy finally pulls back the curtain to reveal the reason for all this to the Doctor comes to mind. The sequence between Missy and Osgood is also quite chilling. The rest of it merely services the arc. Give some credit to Steven Moffat for turning the Cybermen into zombies, and then a platoon of soldiers, but that’s all they are. Likewise, Danny’s part in the finale all fits, but it’s nothing spectacular for all its final flash. In all, it’s been a quality season that set the bar high. This finale meets that bar, but does not dramatically surpass it.

Doctor Who
Season 8, Episode 11 “Dark Water”
Directed by Rachel Talalay
Written by Steven Moffat
Starring Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Michelle Gomez
BBC America
Air Date: Saturday, November 1, 2014

What a difference a week can make, or a writer can make. After coming through an episode like “In The Forest Of The Night,” where everything felt like it was on unsure ground in terms of character and motivation, here we are on bedrock once again. Odd bedrock it is, however. The blows come fast and furious: first there is a death, then a betrayal, and then a mystery. Finally, the little snippets of the Missy story that we’ve seen make sense, and we know who Missy is.

Now whether you like what you see in this episode comes down, as it often does, to whether you like Steven Moffat‘s brand of storytelling on Doctor Who. In his favor, the trademark cleverness is here, and the economical knack for character. We definitely now understand how the crumb trail was left for us, the audience, across the season. The condensed plotting and the penchant for odd ideas that drive parts of the audience nuts are present here too.